Welcome to the Camino de Santiago Guide, your essential Guide to planning your Camino Experience. You are here because you know you have what it takes to complete the hike. Whether you are young or young at heart, the Camino de Santiago is right for you! I guarantee that you will find what you need to successfully complete this great hike and pilgrimage. Follow these 5 steps and you’ll be on your way!

Thanks for this excellent video Phil. This video really shows some great imagery of the Camino de Santiago. Just watching it almost brings me back to those trails.

]]>http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/archives/1058/feed1How do I get medial attention along the Camino?http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/archives/1500
http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/archives/1500#commentsFri, 11 Nov 2011 19:11:34 +0000http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/?p=1500

There are usually Red Cross (Cruz Roja) first aid volunteers and workers in the main towns that pilgrims sleep at. I was fortunate enough to meet one of them when I hurt my leg a few years ago. If you happen to hurt yourself along the Camino you will have to wait for someone else walking the path to notice you and to walk ahead or back to the nearest town to get help. The path is long and it is difficult to find medical attention. But having said that the Camino is obviously a place where people can get hurt and there are ways to get help, albeit it may just take some time.

Most albergues and towns have internet access. Some larger towns have internet cafes, which will help you upload photos to share with friends and family on Facebook or email. As well some of these towns do support WiFi connections, which means you can travel with your smart phone and connect to the internet for free. Some may be free to access and other will require a password such as from the albegue. Be careful about the free to access networks since those have been known to access your private information when you attempt to log into their network.

]]>http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/archives/1497/feed0How much money should you take with you? And are there ATMs along the way?http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/archives/1493
http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/archives/1493#commentsWed, 09 Nov 2011 23:29:16 +0000http://caminodesantiagoguide.org/?p=1493

This is one of the most popular questions that people ask.This is very simple as long as you have a good idea of how long you plan to walk the Camino de Santiago. There are many different ways at looking at the estimating and my view is based on how much I would generally spend.

For me, I tried to be strict and kept my budget between 10-15 Euros per day. This meant that some days I would be lucky and find a cheap albergue of only 5 Euros, which left me 5-10 Euros for food. Other days the albergue was 10 Euros, which meant 5 Euros left for food. As such I would always shop at the local grocery along the Camino for cheap yet filling foods and I was always successful. I was clear that I did not care to eat in restaurants along the way and I tried to save money and I was able to.

Having said this I would tell most people to estimate between 10-20 Euros per day. This is still a cheap estimate and can easily still be much more. This accounts for food and lodging. This can vary though on whether you are committed to saving money or not. But with this, you just take 10-20 multiplied by the number of days you wish to hike.

For example:
(10:20)Euros x (10)Days = 100:200 Euros in total.

I would also take about 20% more just in case for souvenirs or if you wish to eat more etc. As well, there are also many ATMs along the way, which are safe to use. The only downside is that you can incur quite a hefty fee by using a foreign ATM machine. But just so you know they exist if you ever need to get money.

Some Camino pilgrims prefer to complete the Pilgrimage on a Holy or Jubilee Year, which are years that have July 25 fall on a Sunday. At the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the Puerta Santa, or Holy Door, is opened on New Year’s eve before the holy year and remains open throughout the next year.

One main significance of this is that if on that year you walk the Camino de Santiago, or at least a substantial portion of it, and reach the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, you will receive a plenary indulgence. A plenary indulgence absolves one of all their past sins and such punishments. This is an important tenet of the Catholic faith, which is why Holy years experience large surges of Pilgrims and hikers.

Based on the Gregorian calendar this condition is satisfied every 6, 5, 6, and all years in that order. Previous years have included 1993, 1999, 2004, 2010. Future holy years will occur in 2021, 2027 and 2032.

Depending on the traffic and the substance of the Holy year you have to ask yourself it is important to travel that year? For the most part, despite the traffic, there will usually be a substantial amount of people walking the Camino de Santiago during the common walking months. You will still have many moments to walk alone and the paths will still generally not feel crowded.

Taking a digital camera is either important to you or its not. I’m assuming that for most of you reading this, you want to take a camera so that you can show your friends and family all the amazing adventures you had on the Camino. Not only do you want the camera to take pictures, but it has to be sturdy enough to handle hundreds of kilometers of travel and be small enough that you won’t feel like it’s a burden to hold on to. Here is a Top 3 list of best digital cameras to take on the Camino:

3. Kodak EasyShare M580

This camera provides a 8x zoom, wide-angle lens, which is great for taking quality photos. Not only can you take great pictures, but excellent video as well. You can view the images on a relatively large LCD and showcase them via HDMI cable when you possible. The only problem is that customers have said the button placement can make using it a little awkward but still workable. At $109.89 if you need a solid point and shoot camera that gets the job done, this is it.

2. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH25

Panasonic is a reputable camera manufacturer and the Lumix DMC-FH25 is a good edition to its lineup. It’s a simple point and shoot camera with good zoom and great photo quality. A downside is its excessive 16 megapixel can waste a lot of valuable space on your memory card. You can easily fix this by adjusting its setting down to a lower resolution. This can also be a bonus since if you like taking pictures of vast landscapes and printing them, I high megapixel camera, such as this one, will do the job. All the great quality photos you can take, only for $119.99.

1. Canon PowerShot A1200

The Canon PowerShot A1200 is one of the leaders in the digital cameras business. Canon, well known around the world for digital camera, has produced a very impressive camera here. Taking both photo and video with great quality is one of its strong suits. At times this can cause it to be microseconds slower to that of another digital camera. One reason for this delay is the processing and saving of high quality photos and video takes time to do a good job. Given its versatility and high quality, for such a cheap price at $99, this is probably the most excellent point and shoot camera.

When you’re hiking the Camino, you’re either thinking of two things: “My feet are killing me” or “What I’m going to eat today?” If you’re new, then you’ll probably think about the first one more often. But over time, as you walk the Camino, you’ll tend to listen more to your stomach than your head. This can sometimes lead to you walking faster and reaching your destination ahead of time. Since a lot of the groceries and cafes are similar along the Camino, here is a list of the Top 3 Food items on the Camino.

3. Bocadillo and “Café con leche”

If you’re extremely oblivious or strong willed you won’t go into a café along the Camino path. Odds are you’ll likely be having breakfast at a café because they are usually spaced about 5-7km outside the main city, which is enough for you to gain a breakfast appetite.

Most typically, pilgrims order the Bocadillo since it contains a tasty piece of ham and energy filling carbohydrates in the bread. This is enough to fill you up so that you can make that hike to the next town on the Camino. As well, no breakfast would be fulfilled without café con leche, which is considered to be some of the best coffee in Spain and around the world. If the Bocadillo didn’t perk you up this definitely will. Together, the two items should only cost you about 3.50 euros. A cheap way to enjoy the rest of your day’s hike.

2. Can of peaches

This is a hidden gem that some friends of mine told me about. While a can of peaches is hardly anything new or extraordinary, most people on the Camino tend to pass up on this when they walk past it in the grocery store. That’s because most of us are either used to eating regular peaches or we’ve never just indulged in eating peaches right out of the can.

The first time you do you’ll know what I mean when I call it food from the Gods. There’s enough sugar to give you sufficient amounts of energy and enough taste to fill your palette for the next little while. The juiciness and texture of whole canned peaches is enough to make you want more, but you’ll realize you’ll just buy it again at the next city’s grocery. Costing no more than 1.50 euros, it made its way onto the second spot of the Top 3 foods on the Camino.

1. Wine

Unless you believe you have a drinking problem then wine is not the best for you. Otherwise, wine is possibly the best food/drink on the Camino for several reasons. If you’re like me wine is always the best form of sustinence, but if you require a reason here it is:

For quite some time now, wine has been known to benefit your health. The benefits have been found against a variety of problems such as smoking, heart disease, blood clots, hypertension, kidney stones, and alzheimers. If you are some how not in danger of any of those via lifestyle or genetics then you must be the luckiest person in the world. A lot of us hope to become healthier and fit by walking the Camino, and wine definitely contributes to this. Another reason is that people want to relax and look cool. You’re definitely not going to get that from coffee or soda with all its caffeine, but you’ll get that from wine. Just imagine yourself in a nice picturesque villa along the Camino. You’d rather be picture with a nice bottle of wine than with a bottle of soda. Lastly, the wine is extremely cheap. I’ve sampled lots of wine on my Camino hikes, and I can tell you that after a while a lot of them stay the same. What’s good about this is that you can drink the cheaper stuff, which at times can cost about 1 euro! For a while bottle!! If that doesn’t convince you I don’t know what would.

If you have any further recommendations or comments, please leave a comment below!

I think “The Way” is an excellent story that really exemplifies why the Camino de Santiago is such a beneficial experience. If you were like me, I’m sure you made a note of all the memorable places along the Camino. But that aside, I thought the story brought up some very good themes.

One theme that was was quite significant is mortality and life. Right at the beginning, we learn that Tom’s (Martin Sheen) son Daniel (Emilio Estevez) was killed. Having received the most devastating news, Tom set out to complete the Camino that his son had started. As Tom walked he would scatter a portion of Daniel’s ashes at fence posts, statues, cliff sides and markers all along the path. What is remarkable is that as Tom walked, he slowly forgot the death of his son. And through the death of his son, he saw and began to understand the life that his son was trying to live. A life that was almost the polar opposite of Tom’s.

This is very interesting because people often describe feeling changed after having walked the Camino de Santiago. Many say that they started the hike because someone recommended it, not thinking that it would be anything significant. But after having completed it, they say its the best thing that’s ever happened to them. The Camino de Santiago has a way of opening your eyes to the simplicity and the pleasures of life. Maybe its the routine day to day activity that brings us to finally search deep within ourselves and find out who we really are.

Another theme that I found quite true of walking the Camino is friendship. Like Tom, you may not immediately be keen on meeting others but over time you realize that it is a long walk and that talking to others and making friends definitely adds to the experience. Some days you may ask yourself why you’re even on this hike. Some days can seem all but the same and other days can be much more difficult than the last. What gets you through to the end is meeting all the wonderful people along the way. You never know who you’ll meet or what kind of person they are and that mystery and knowledge that people are open to meeting you too makes even more exciting.

While meeting people is definitely something to appreciate, there will definitely also be long stretches of quiet. Someone on the Camino told me “You really need long stretches of solitude, before you can start listening to yourself and talking to God.” This has always been with me, and I feel that I can relate to Tom as a fellow pilgrim. After having completed the Camino, just like Tom, I feel that there’s more to life than all the busyness happening in normal life. I hike the Camino often to remind myself of this and to get away from all the buzz that detracts me from that. Everyone hikes the Camino with a purpose. And I am always sure everyone, even if they don’t search for it, find a meaning suited to them after hiking the Camino.

Thousands of people are encouraged to walk the Camino de Santiago after watching this wonderful masterpiece. Join them and own The Way DVD to remind yourself of a beautiful story with the gorgeous backdrop of the Camino de Santiago.